Maine Green Independent Party
The Maine Green Independent Party is the oldest state Green party in the United States.1 It was founded following an informal meeting of 18 environmental advocates and others in Augusta, Maine in January of 1984 http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11995&Itemid=1. Ten Key Values The party is based on the 10 Key Values of: 1. Grassroots Democracy, 2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity, 3. Ecological Wisdom, 4. Non-Violence, 5. Decentralization, 6. Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice 7. Feminism and Gender Equity, 8. Respect for Diversity, 9. Personal and Global Responsibility; and 10. Future Focus and Sustainability Party Qualification The party achieved its current ballot status in 1998. Previously the Maine Green Party achieved ballot status in 1994 with the Jonathan Carter gubernatorial campaign, but lost it in 1997 after Ralph Nader failed to get 5% of the vote for President in 1996, a requirement of state law that has since changed. In 1998, Pat LaMarche requalified the political party with her campaign for governor, but under the a new name, the Maine Green Independent Party. LaMarche ran again in 2006 capturing almost 10% of the vote in a 5-way race. The campaign's website was indexed by the Library of Congress and won a Golden Dot Award, because of the site's use of new ways to interact with voters. The party (in terms of registered votes) is currently in a period of continuous growth stretching back to 1998 according to state records http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/votregol.htm, http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/votreg.htm. As of November 2006 there were 29,273 greens in the state comprising 2.95% of the electorate http://www.ballot-access.org/2007/03/26/maine-green-registration-rises-again/, and that figure has most certainly risen since then. Portland Greens The party realizes its greatest successes in the state's largest city, Portland. From 2002 to 2006, the highest-ranking elected Green in the United States was John Eder, who served in the Maine House of Representatives for Portland's West End neighborhoodhttp://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2002g/gen02sr.htm http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2004n/sr.htm http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006g/gen06sr.html. Seven of the state's elected Greens are Portland officeholders, including two School Committee members, three City Councilors and two Water Trustees. The School Committee was once the second "Greenest" governing body in the United Stateshttp://www.feinstein.org/greenparty/mostgreenslegbody.html, and from 2004-2006, significant media attention was attributed to conflicts between the Committee's Greens and Democratshttp://www.gp.org/greenpages/content/volume10/issue1/elections5.php. The Greens successfully passed precedent-setting policy limiting military recruiters' access to city high schools, and were recognized by the National School Board Associationhttp://www.nsba.org/site/doc_sbn.asp?TrackID=&SID=1&DID=36815&CID=1735&VID=58. The 2006 election of two under-30 Green councilors in Portland's high profile West End and East End districts, continues to attract comment among the local news media. Elected Officials There are currently 18 elected Green officeholders in Maine. *Kevin Donoghue, City Council, Portland District 1 (Cumberland County) *David Marshall, City Council, Portland District 2 (Cumberland County) *John Anton, City Council, Portland At-Large (Cumberland County) *Denis Howard, City Council, Belfast (Waldo County) *George Sullivan, Town Council, Yarmouth (Cumberland County) http://216.92.191.78/elections/candidates.php?candidateId=2720&electionId=&year=2007 *Charlie Wiggins, Select Board, Sedgwick (Hancock County) *Jerry Hoag, Select Board, Beaver Cove (Piscataquis County) *Robert LaVangie, School Board, Penobscot (Hancock County) *Matthew Shea, School Board, Maine School Administrative District #11, Gardiner *Susan Hopkins, School Committee At-Large, Portland (Cumberland County) *Rebecca Minnick, School Committee, Portland District 1, (Cumberland County) *Jane Meisenbach, Board of Directors, School Administrative District #75 *Andrea Narajian, Board of Directors, School Administrative District #75 *Jo Josephson, School Board, Temple (Franklin County) *John Fillmore-Patrick, School Board. SAD 61, Bridgton (Cumberland County) *Erek Gaines, Water District, Portland (Cumberland County) *David Margolis-Pineo, Water District, Portland (Cumberland County) *Matt Sinclair, Water District, Portland (Cumberland County) *Antonio Blasi, Planning Board, Hancock (Hancock County) Cumberland County of Maine has the highest number of Green elected officials of any county in the nation http://www.ccgreens.org. Formerly elected Maine Greens: *John Eder, Maine State House of Representatives, Portland (Cumberland County), 2002-2006 *Ben Meiklejohn, School Committee At-Large, Portland (Cumberland County), 2001-2007 *Stephen Spring, School Committee (District 2), Portland (Cumberland County), 2003-2006 *Jason Toothaker, School Committee (District 3), Portland (Cumberland County), 2004-2007 * Karen Mayo, Select Board, Bowdoinham (Sagadahoc County) External links *Maine Greens Citations 1. Rensenbrink, John. The Greens and the Politics of Transformation, 1992, R & E Miles Maine Category:Politics of Maine